Amidst the Falling Snow
by Kagurazaka
Summary: When Rin meets someone unexpected, in the midst of a bleary winter; both reminding each other of someone else. One shot, Rin centric.


The gravels were cutting into me, I noted, in the midst of a bleary vision

**Amidst the Falling Snow**

**Disclaimer: **I own none.

**Summary: **When Rin meets someone unexpected, in the midst of a bleary winter; both reminding each other of someone else.

--

The gravels were cutting into me, I felt, in the midst of a bleary vision and near-numbness of senses. I noted the scene of a typical deserted Japanese street, the bright streetlamp with moths surrounding it- Oh how I hated the bright light- the dog digging into the overfull heap of garbage piled beneath it, and I noted, the blonde woman who was squatting down and staring at me.

"Yo." She said.

_Yo._ Not, "Are you alright?" or even, "You deserve it bitch!", but _yo._

I tried to prop myself up on my elbow, as the other hand was busy clenching my stomach. I managed halfway through, and having no energy left to do anything else, I glared at her instead, and said with all spite, "Leave me alone." That sentence came out flat and dull, not even any energy left to shout, or even whisper profanities. Without any warning, she looked through my pockets, and hoisted my cell phone out, entirely without prior permission. Despite my glares, which I felt was enough to drill holes on a twenty centimeters thick wall; she nonchalantly flipped it open and started operating it.

"Since you're obviously not lying here because it's comfortable, I'm phoning your pa-"

"DON'T!" I forced my arm to stop clutching my stomach and snatched the phone back frantically. Gasping, I buckled my way up and started to half-run away from this freaky bitch, ignoring the pain.

…

I think I managed ten meters before she force tackled me, and once again, I found myself on the hard gravel ridden surface. It was warm, and oddly soft.

WHO IN HELL WOULD TACKLE AN OBVIOUSLY SICK, MAYBE DYING PERSON?!

Well, maybe I would. Kick them, I mean. It was quite surprising I would have these absurd thoughts while lying on the _dirt, _tackled by a complete nutcase (which I suspected) of a stranger.

"Ha! Gotcha!" She gave a cry, and I swore I could've heard her _smile_ in victory. In this case, despite what I said, or rather, thought, earlier, I yelled. "Let me GO! What the hell do you want, damnit, leave me alone!" I pounded on her arm, struggling to free my way despite the agonies it was causing. She wasn't much taller than me, but it was nonetheless a difference. Since taller equals more power, I was a hopeless case. So I pounded on her arm-

Then I realized that I was lying on top of an arm. So that was why it didn't hurt. Feeling that I had stopped struggling, she slowly went up, and extended her hand towards me. Instead of accepting it like a good girl would, I slapped her extended hand away, and stood up whilst glaring at her. "Why are you doing _this?!"_

"Well, you were running away…"

Idiot. Despite my furious, raging anger, I decided that this person was an idiot, grinning like that with a scraped arm. There was no use asking her, or wasting time doing so. Whatever her motive was, it wouldn't concern me, not now, not in the future. I turned and strode away, the pain was already dissipating. She did not follow me.

I had already cast her out of my life during that brief encounter.

--

"You remind me of someone."

But fate was anything but relenting, as I saw her for the second time in the park, strolling around, with her gaze towards the sky. For one reason or another, she ended up sitting on the swing beside me.

"You remind me of someone" She said, and I stared at the snow swirling from the wind. That too, reminded me of someone.

"And because I look like your dead ex-lover, you tackled me to the ground, grabbed my phone, and then tried to call my parents?" Well, technically it was chronologically reversed, but I wasn't in the mood to care. Still, I retorted that while watching the snow drift.

"You seemed like you wanted to cry, that's why."

I snapped at her direction. Why… this yankee… With her rebellious blonde hair and simpleton attitude, how dare she…! Suddenly I jerked up from the swing, its chain rattling like a torrent of chattering teeth; I marched towards her, ready to give her a taste of my mighty high-heels.

Then I saw her face. Again, that smile; how can one smile so freely?

"Want one?" She pointed to her box of takoyaki, oblivious to the fact that I was _this_ close to having my high heels imprinted permanently on her pretty face. Well, maybe not really pretty in that sense, but there was something that made me…

"I don't eat in front of people."

"Anorexic?"

"Screw you, yankee."

A snort startled me, as she started laughing at god knows what. Obviously I wasn't graced in the humor department.

"WHAT?"

Covering her mouth with her hand, she managed to choke back laughter, "A boy used to call me that too, y'know, a boy with this permanent frown and weird hair color… I think you two are quite alike." That yankee lifted the edges of her eyes to assimilate a glare and creased her eyebrows to prove her point.

So there I was, standing with arms limp at my sides, the snow falling gently around me, while being compared to a weird runty brat (who sounded like someone I knew) by a total nutcase doing a face contortion.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Honda Kyouko." Seeing my silence, she must've had taken advantage of the brief moment to introduce herself. She gave me one of those _grins_, and patted the swing near her.

As if I would…

The next thing I knew, she was calling me Rin-_chan_, and I was, however reluctantly, sharing the box of takoyaki with her. Apparently logic didn't work in her presence. Her ready smile and laidback attitude made me feel oddly at ease. Ease it was, though I kept my self-reservation, as I had always learned since the 'play' ended.

"No." I said, as a response to her previous question, of why a frown would constantly adorn my face.

What… no? No; I wasn't frowning, no; her question was wrong, no; I don't want to answer, or no; I don't know the answer?

But of course I knew. It could be explained with the simplest of words, one sentence; _the play ended, they threw out the unwanted cast._

She must have understood this muddled dilemma; for she stopped asking and simply leaned back, her gaze again, upwards to the sky. The snow that was falling gently, it descended down, before it melted, its white soiled by the brown that had unknowingly cushioned its fall. Perhaps when it landed, it was then the true plunge began.

I wonder if I am the soil while he drifts so gently towards me, so unknowing…

--

"She's the cutest thing on earth!" She exclaimed as she showed me a picture of a girl in her wallet. Her smile was overwhelming, and I wanted to hate her, because I always hated, those adults…

But how can I hate someone who can say that she loved her daughter with such sincerity? She patted my head, and I returned her smile. I was truly, genuinely envious of her daughter, of everyone that was graced by her presence.

She made me feel…

_Loved._

And for a brief moment I could just close my eyes and pretend that the pat was from my mother, an imaginary being I created after the play was over.

"Thank you… for today." I said hesitantly, and saw her bid me a farewell with that warm smile of hers.

"We'll meet again, Rin-chan!"

We never did, and later, years later I would learn that she died from a car accident, and I would close the shoji behind me, leaving her daughter, and look at the gently drifting snow hitting the window with its furious gentleness, and this time, the soil did not taint it, but was simply enveloped by the simple grace of its presence.

_You remind of someone._


End file.
